MUZAFFARABAD: The federal government on Wednesday withdrew a notification regarding the formation of a committee to manage the ‘Jammu and Kashmir State Property’ in Pakistan, a day after the six elected members of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Council made a written request to this effect to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

On September 3, the prime minister had approved the establishment of a seven-member committee to work out modalities for the utilisation and disposal of Jammu and Kashmir State Property, as well as the utilisation of the sale proceeds (if any) for the welfare of the Kashmiri people.

According to a notification issued by the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), the committee was to be chaired by the minister for Kashmir Affairs and GB, with coordinator to the prime minister on Kashmir Affairs and GB, the secretary of the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and GB, the law secretary, AJK’s chief secretary, a representative from the Senior Member Board of Revenue, Punjab, and the administrator of Jammu and Kashmir State Property as members.

The ‘Jammu and Kashmir State Property’ refers to the immovable assets, including vast tracts of land, mansions, and shops in Pakistan — mostly in Punjab — that once belonged to the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Following the partition of the subcontinent, the management of these properties remained with the Kashmiri government in Muzaffarabad until 1955. Afterwards, the government of Pakistan transferred their administrative control to the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs, which appointed an administrator to oversee the assets, including the collection of rent from leased out commercial properties.

Over the years, there have been several complaints regarding corruption and abuse of authority in the administration of these properties. There have also been allegations that some properties were unlawfully sold at throwaway prices in exchange for kickbacks.

Ironically, no official institution in Azad Kashmir has precise records of these properties — neither those that existed at the time of partition nor those currently under the ministry’s control.

Repeated demands from Kashmiri civil society for a forensic audit of these properties, as well as the income generated from them, and the transfer of their administrative control to the elected government in Muzaffarabad, have cut no ice with the federal governments.

In this context, the September 3 notification raised concerns among Kashmiri circles, who feared that the committee might dispose of these properties in a questionable manner, particularly because it lacked any “genuine representative” of the Kashmiris, aside from a “lent officer” — a term used to describe officers from the federal government posted in Azad Kashmir against some five key positions.

In a joint letter addressed to PM Sharif on Tuesday, a copy was which was available withDawn, the six elected members of the AJK Council — Khawaja Tariq Saeed, Sardar Abdul Razzaq Khan, Shuja Khurshid Rathore, Mohammad Younas Mir, Mohammad Haneef Malik, and Mohammad Adnan Khalid — expressed serious reservations about the September 3 notification, arguing that the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and GB lacked the legal authority to form such a committee.

“The issue of the Jammu and Kashmir State Property located in Pakistan is the fundamental right of the Kashmiri people and falls under the jurisdiction of the AJK government, as outlined in Part B of the Third Schedule of the AJK Interim Constitution, 1974. Therefore, we request that the committee’s activities be halted, and no decisions should be made regarding the Jammu and Kashmir State Property in Pakistan without the explicit consent of the AJK government and the elected members of the AJK Council,” wrote the council members, representing all three major political parties in Azad Kashmir.

Sources told Dawn that on Wednesday, the six council members announced plans to hold a press conference in the federal capital on this issue. However, they received a message from Minister for Kashmir Affairs and GB Amir Muqam, asking them to wait for an hour and a half.

During this time, a fresh notification was issued by the ministry, stating that the September 3 notification regarding the “utilisation/disposal of J&K State Property” had been withdrawn ab initio.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2024